


under rich, relentless skies

by inkwelled



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Wonder Woman, Blatant Disregard For History's Scorn of Gays, Espionage, F/F, Historical Inaccuracy, Implied Relationships, Implied Sexual Content, Major character death - Freeform, Minor Character Death, Non-Linear Narrative, We Know How It Goes, World War II, because I said so, the Amazons - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 13:58:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16914156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkwelled/pseuds/inkwelled
Summary: Catherine falls, so quickly and quietly she doesn't realize it happening until it's too late.It's the first time, and then so quickly the last.





	under rich, relentless skies

**Author's Note:**

> title ; [to be human by sia](https://genius.com/Sia-to-be-human-lyrics)
> 
> shoutout to ot50, especially jess, for cheering me on and calling me a god when i am a simple, humble human who cried over wonder woman on my birthday and determined it was catradora

_x._

She lifts her face to heavens, closes her eyes.

In her pocket, the watch is a weight that she knows will linger long after Catherine's face fades with the ravages of time. It has been a week, yet it's already hard to remember the crease around her eyes when she laughed, the way the fire flickered across her face that night Adora woke with her coat around her shoulders.

Adora breathes out, and life continues on around her.

 

  
_ix._

She knows then, the watch pressed into her hands. Ears ringing, she screams, body convulsing with the desperation to tear free and fly straight into the booming light that has stolen the one person she’s ever loved. Cold steel is a closed trap around her, but she's never had a problem with human's creations before.

Adora Prince breaks the steel around her wrists and goes straight for the neck.

"Only love can truly save the world."

Catherine has - _had_  - shown her that, and she uses it.

Hordak never stands a chance. He dies in an explosion of lighting, heat, screaming, and Adora's knees hit the ground afterward with a sting that in no way compares to the pain in her chest as she sorts through the wreckage.

The largest piece they find is the plane's door.

Everything else disintegrated.

 

 

_viii._

Catherine's hands cupping her cheeks, betrayal should be a familiar sting, even after this short time. One of the spy's thumbs lightly caresses her cheekbone but she steps away, blinking back the memory of last night.

"Come with me," she begs.

Adora's heart breaks. She cannot. Not after this.

She shakes her head and Catherine disappears into the night, gun strapped to her back. Adora Prince stands on the watchtower, sword dripping with the tainted blood of the cursed General Weaver, and watches as everything she's fought for melts into a lie.

_General Weaver was not Ares._

They still fight.

She fights on, too.

 

  
_vii._

Hands on her back, Catherine hisses. "You can't! Not here!"

Adora stares her back down. "What I do is not up to you," she spits, sword cold against the curve of her spine, heavy with what she must do and what Catherine does not understand.

The canon booms overhead and Catherine coughs as she fights through the smoke. When Adora emerges, without a scratch, whole and healthy and alive, Catherine cups her cheeks in shock before she's pushed away.

"You stopped me from killing Ares!"

She sheds her dress, pulls her sword, foolishly vows to end this.

How naive is she.

Her mother was right. Her queen was right.

 

  
_vi._

"Goodnight, Adora."

Catherine stands in the doorway, hand on the knob to leave her alone, and she finds herself wishing she would stay. The hotel keeper had allowed them four rooms, and even though they both have their own rooms, Catherine shuts the door without leaving.

Hands in her hair, running over her armor before giving up with a sigh that she swallows, Adora laughs. They're quiet as they learn each other, Catherine's fingers unlatching the buckles in her armor and letting the fur drape fall to the floor.

"Stay."

She does.

Adora finds herself disagreeing with Cleo's treatises.

 

  
_v._

She stands tall, proud, Catherine by her shoulder.

The old man is stooped and counts down from three. There's a flash that glints off the sword at her side, and then it's over. They stand around afterward, shaking hands of the locals, and Catherine gazes in a way Adora knows means she doesn't know she sees.

"Dance with me."

Adora sees her first snowfall, and Catherine sways them in a circle before brushing back a piece of her blonde hair, dotted with ash and dirt, but just as beautiful as spun gold.

"You did this."

Adora looks out on the town. "No," she smiles, the sun coming out well past dark, " _we_ did."

 

  
_iv._

Catherine screams her name, but she pays no attention.

It's easy to shrug off the fur. After all, the fur is everything her companion on this journey has insisted she keep hidden - because it isn't normal, isn't acceptable. Adora unknots her hair, slips on her circlet, climbs the ladder, and crosses No Man's Land.

Catherine doesn't stand a chance.

When Adora is blown back by the tank, she doesn't scream. When Adora falls, she doesn't yell. When Adora braces herself on the tank door, flying towards the church steeple and reducing it to dust, she doesn't shout.

She waits with bated breath.

Like she always does, Adora emerges, and Catherine watches her look down at the crowd, but only sees her.

 

  
_iii._

"Get behind me."

Adora's arm shoots out as she flinches, and Catherine catches the bullet.

"Or not."

Adora smirks.

 

  
_ii._

"Are you not sleeping?"

Catherine pauses in her movements to make her bed elsewhere. "I am."

"Then why are you over there?"

Adora moves to the side, sweeping away her furs, and Catherine settles in next to her with the knowledge she will not sleep tonight. Adora smells like the island, like sweat and something clean and almost tropical - enchanting, and after she nods off Catherine studies her face.

The face of a woman who has lived such a long time yet never lived one, truly and fully. The face of a woman who believes an ancient diety is the cause of the war to end all wars, the face of the woman who saved her life.

Catherine turns over.

"Goodnight Adora."

  
_i._

Catherine is dead because the woman kneeling over her is most certainly an angel and she is in heaven.

"You are from the outside," the angel says slowly, and Catherine nods, dumbfounded.

"You are not."

The angel saves her life once, twice. Catherine watches her easy movements in battle, thinks of how she looked up at the woman with the golden hair and ocean eyes, kneeling over her on a beach, raised a hand to her mother and queen for her.

Catherine falls, so quickly and quietly she doesn't realize it happening until it's too late.

It's the first time, and then so quickly the last.

**Author's Note:**

> come yell at and/or with me on my she-ra twitter, adorascatrq!


End file.
